It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes’s iron constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional indiscretions of his own. In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent would lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his health was not a matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for his mental detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of that year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay, at the farther extremity of the Cornish peninsula. [DEVI]
According to Guinn and Mahoney in A Curious Collection of Dates, the Adventure of the Devil’s Foot begins on March 16, 1897.
But! In Dorn’s A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes, the Adventure of the Devil’s Foot begins on April 8, 1897.
These two listings are contrary to each other as to when this case started. It is an example of one of my favorite controversies in Sherlockian scholarly world: Figuring out when each case occurred, based on clues picked up from the case and our outlandish Sherlockian minds. So, on we go, and we shall see if the chronology of Leah Guinn and Jaime Maloney and their volume disagree in other cases with the chronology of William Dorn and his volume.
Sources: A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”) and A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
Posted by Ron aka “Chips” and Beth aka “Selena Buttons”, proud columnists for the John H Watson Society.
Jean Elizabeth Leckie was born March 14, 1874 to James Blythe Leckie and Selina Leckie in London, England.
At age twenty-three, while studying voice, she met Arthur Conan Doyle. At the time, he was thirty-eight and married with two children. His wife, Louisa, was suffering from tuberculosis.
Reportedly, Arthur immediately fell in love with Jean, but he remained faithful to Louisa until her death in 1906.
Arthur and Jean married September 18th, 1907, and had three children: Denis, Adrian, and Lena Jean. She survived her husband by ten years, passing away on June 27, 1940.
Source:
Information provided by A Curious Collection of Dates by by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”).
Posted by The Dynamic Duo of Ron (JHWS “Chips”) and Beth (JHWS “Selena”)
Sir George Newnes was born March 13, 1851, in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. In 1881, he founded a new magazine that would include small articles (“tit-bits”) reprinted from other publications. He called it, of course, Tit-Bits. (Or, to give it its proper full title: Tit-Bits from all the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World.)
Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”) write in A Curious Collection of Dates:
Tit-Bits from all the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World, Issue 1
The new magazine entered the marketplace at the perfect time: literacy rates had grown in England thanks to the Compulsory Education Act of 1870, and an increasingly urban, commuting public welcomed interesting train reading that did not require the commitment of a lengthy serial. It didn’t hurt that Newness was an expert promoter: Tit-Bits offered train insurance, contests for everything from cash to a house – even, in 1903, buried treasure.
He went on to found The Strand Magazine in 1891, which stated in its first issue, “It will contain stories and articles by the best British writers, and special translations from the first foreign authors. These will be illustrated by eminent artists.” The July 1891 issue contained the first appearance of “A Scandal in Bohemia”.
“Chips” notes: I think this is where the name of our column came from back when I
first joined this world of 1895 at about the age of 11.
Sources:
Information provided by the volume A Curious Collection of Dates by by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). Digitized copy of the first volume of The Strand: An Illustrated Monthly held by the University of California available via Google Books.
Posted by The Dynamic Duo: Ron (JHWS “Chips”) and Beth (JHWS “Selena Buttons”)
Quotation from “The Outlook for the Flying Machine” by Professor Simon Newcomb [The Independent, 22 October 1903]Simon Newcomb was born on March 12, 1835, in Wallace, Nova Scotia, Canada.
One hardly knows where, in the history of science, to look for an important movement that had its effective start in so pure and simple an accident as that which led to the building of the great Washington telescope, and went on to the discovery of the satellites of Mars. [Simon Newcomb, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer, 1903
Who was Simon Newcomb?
[Illustration by Sidney Paget for “The Final Problem”, The Strand Magazine, December 1893]
Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid – a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? [VALL]
In A Curious Collection of Dates, Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”) note:
Several men have the dubious honor of being considered models for James Moriarty, and eminent American astronomer Simon Newcomb is one of them.
Newcomb was a gifted mathematician who, like Moriarty, applied his genius to the field of astronomy. In 1861, his paper “On the Secular Variations and Mutual Relations of the Orbits of the Asteroids” was published in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is possible that Arthur Conan Doyle came across Newcomb’s work in his own wide-ranging studies.
Another side of Newcomb
Also like Moriarty, Newcomb appears to have had a darker side. He studied mathematics under Benjamin Peirce at Harvard, later becoming friends with him. Newcomb did not become friends with Peirce’s son, Charles, a fellow mathematician four years Newcomb’s junior. In Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life, biographer Joseph Brent credits Newcomb with no less than the “successful destruction of” Peirce’s career. Among other moves to sabotage Peirce, and perhaps motivated by his profound disapproval of Peirce’s recent divorce and marriage to his mistress, Newcomb played a major part in the denial of Peirce’s 1902 application for a Carnegie grant.
It is highly unlikely that Conan Doyle was aware of these facts: however, the story of a mathematical genius with a dark side doing battle with an unconventional genius dedicated to logic sounds familiar all the same. [from A Curious Collection of Dates]
Sources:
Information from the volume A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). Additional information from the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life by Joseph Brent.
Posted by The Dynamic Duo, Ron (JHWS “Chips”) and Beth (JHWS “Selena Buttons”)
Royal Victoria Military Hospital, Netley, Hampshire: from the harbour. Line engraving by T.A. Prior, 1857, after E. Duncan.
The Royal Victoria Military Hospital Netley began accepting patients on March 11, 1863.
Construction began on the hospital in 1856, with the first stone ceremonially laid by Queen Victoria. The inscription on the stone read:
This stone was laid on the 19th day of May in the year of our Lord, 1856, by Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the foundation stone of the Victoria Military Hospital intended for the reception of the sick and wounded soldiers of her Army.
In their book A Curious Collection of Dates, Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”) write:
Some thirty million bricks later, the hospital with its 1,000 beds was the longest building in the world. Unfortunately its design sacrificed practicality to grandeur, and by the time medical professionals such as Florence Nightingale were able to offer their suggestions, it was too late to make substantial changes. As a result the lovely grounds and the independent infrastructure (including a reservoir and generator) were counterbalanced by dark patient wards, more ventilation and unpleasant odors. Despite its problems the Royal Victoria served Britain through its wars and conflicts until a fire in 1963 destroyed a large section of the main building. With the exception of the chapel the hospital was demolished in 1966. Today, it serves as the Royal Victoria Visitors Center and Country Park.
We may be most immediately familiar with Netley from Dr Watson’s very first words to us, in A Study in Scarlet:
In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.
Sources:
Information from A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”), with additional information of the stone inscription courtesy of QARANC’s Netley Hospital Information Page.
Posted by The Dynamic Duo Ron (JHWS “Chips”) aka Ron and Beth (JHWS “Selena”)
On March 9, 1955, Denis Percy Stewart Conan Doyle (born 1909), son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, died in India. He was the first child of Arthur Conan Doyle’s marriage to Jean Leckie, and the eldest surviving son after the death of his half-brother, Kingsley, in 1918.
From information provided by the volume A Curious Collection of Dates by by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”), we find this note in E W Smith’s “From the Editor’s Commonplace Book” in the July 1955 issue of the Baker Street Journal:
[Denis was n]ever too sympathetic with the doings of the Baker Street Irregulars — he found the profound pseudo-scholarship angle a little baffling — [but] Denis was nevertheless an interested and sometimes charming observer.
Denis Conan Doyle attended the 1949 BSI Dinner and was perhaps somewhat miffed that Holmes and Watson, rather than his father, were getting all the attention. Smith goes to recall:
And then, a few minutes later, he got to his feet, at Chris Morley’s invitation, and gave a simple and very moving little talk on ‘My Father’s Friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes’.
Posted by The Dynamic Duo (JHWS Chips) aka Ron and (JHWS Selena) aka Beth
March 8, 1888: Holmes learned that Jack Douglas had been lost at sea. [VALL]
“No, I don’t say that,” said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. “I don’t say that he can’t be beat. But you must give me time – you must give me time!” We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes still strained to pierce the veil.
Source A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
March 7, 1881: Jefferson Hope’s body was found in his cell. [STUD]
He had gone to the final judgment and reunion with Lucy. One can hope that mercy ruled determination of their case. Their suffering and pain on earth was enough. -Chips
Source A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
March 6, 1881: Holmes tested some pills on the landlady’s dying dog. [STUD]
…Or was it Watson’s bull pup mentioned in the conversation that they had about each other and their habits before they moved in at 221B, as some Sherlockian scholars have noted?
As he spoke he turned the contents of the wine-glass into a saucer and placed it in front of the terrier, who speedily licked it dry. Sherlock Holmes’s earnest demeanour had so far convinced us that we all sat in silence, watching the animal intently, and expecting some startling effect. None such appeared, however. The dog continued to lie stretched upon the cushion, breathing in a laboured way, but apparently neither the better nor the worse for its draught.
March 6, 1881: Jefferson Hope was captured. [STUD]
Illustration by George Hutchinson for A Study in Scarlet (1891)
The whole thing occurred in a moment – so quickly that I had no time to realize it. I have a vivid recollection of that instant, of Holmes’s triumphant expression and the ring of his voice, of the cabman’s dazed, savage face, as he glared at the glittering handcuffs, which had appeared as if by magic upon his wrists. For a second or two we might have been a group of statues. Then with an inarticulate roar of fury, the prisoner wrenched himself free from Holmes’s grasp, and hurled himself through the window. Woodwork and glass gave way before him; but before he got quite through, Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes sprang upon him like so many staghounds. He was dragged back into the room, and then commenced a terrific conflict. So powerful and so fierce was he that the four of us were shaken off again and again. He appeared to have the convulsive strength of a man in an epileptic fit. His face and hands were terribly mangled by his passage through the glass, but the loss of blood had no effect in diminishing his resistance. It was not until Lestrade succeeded in getting his hand inside his neckcloth and half-strangling him that we made him realize that his struggles were of no avail; and even then we felt no security until we had pinioned his feet as well as his hands. That done, we rose to our feet breathless and panting.
March 5, 1881: Stangerson found stabbed to death at Halliday’s Private Hotel. [STUD]
He stood in the centre of the room, fumbling nervously with his hat and uncertain what to do.
“This is a most extraordinary case,” he said at last – “a most incomprehensible affair.”
“Ah, you find it so, Mr. Lestrade!” cried Gregson, triumphantly. “I thought you would come to that conclusion. Have you managed to find the secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson?”
“The secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson,” said Lestrade gravely, “was murdered at Halliday’s Private Hotel about six o’clock this morning.”
Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1906)
March 5, 1881: An old “crone” retrieved the woman’s wedding ring advertised as “found” in the ad placed by Holmes. [STUD]
At my summons, instead of the man of violence whom we expected, a very old and wrinkled woman hobbled into the apartment. She appeared to be dazzled by the sudden blaze of light, and after dropping a curtsy, she stood blinking at us with her bleared eyes and fumbling in her pocket with nervous shaky fingers. I glanced at my companion, and his face had assumed such a disconsolate expression that it was all I could do to keep my countenance.
By Hope’s own admission, this person was not Jefferson Hope, so who was she or he? Hope took the secret with him to the hereafter. Any ideas out there?
Source A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
Sherlock Holmes approached the body, and, kneeling down, examined it intently.
As he spoke, his nimble fingers were flying here, there, and everywhere, feeling, pressing, unbuttoning, examining, while his eyes wore the same far-away expression which I have already remarked upon. So swiftly was the examination made, that one would hardly have guessed the minuteness with which it was conducted. Finally, he sniffed the dead man’s lips, and then glanced at the soles of his patent leather boots. [STUD]
[Illustration by George Wylie Hutchinson for the Ward, Lock, Bowden, & Co 1891 edition of A Study in Scarlet]
March 4, 1881: Drebber was poisoned and died. The body was found in an abandoned flat. A woman’s wedding ring was found there. A German word written in BLOOD was found on a wall. What happened?
Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1902)
March 4, 1881: Watson met the Baker Street Irregulars
“What on earth is this?” I cried, for at this moment there came the pattering of many steps in the hall and on the stairs, accompanied by audible expressions of disgust upon the part of our landlady.
“It’s the Baker Street division of the detective police force,” said my companion gravely; and as he spoke there rushed into the room half a dozen of the dirtiest and most ragged street arabs that ever I clapped eyes on.
Source A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
“Poor Alice was so frightened that she shrunk away from him, but he caught her by the wrist and endeavoured to draw her towards the door.” March 3, 1881: Businessmen Drebber and Stangerson bid adieu to Madame Charpentier. [STUD]
This according to one version.
The illustration at right is by George Wylie Hutchinson from the Ward, Lock, Bowden, & Co 1891 edition of A Study in Scarlet.
Intriguing way to say good-bye. If the reader does not remember the details, It could be a good time to reread the story.
Source A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI
Posted by Chips aka Ron for whom the Game is always Afoot and Selena Buttons, Co-Columnists
by Julian Portch, photograph of crayon drawing, (circa 1853)
On March 2, 1831, Samuel Orchart Beeton was born in London.
To the rest of the world, if the name Beeton means anything, it brings to mind Isabella Beeton’s classic Book of Household Management, a staple reference for British households for well over a century and, as of this writing, still in print.
In the world of Sherlock Holmes, however, the name means only one thing: Beeton’s Christmas Annual. More specifically, it means the 1887 edition with its image of a boy lighting a lamp and the title, A Study in Scarlet, featured so prominently that it dwarfs all the others, and may as well be the only one in the magazine. Which is, of course, how it should be.
The eponymous publisher of the Christmas Annual did not live to see this particular issue, having died of tuberculous ten years before. He had a rapid rise to the top and just as fast a fall. Before he died, Beeton found himself forced to sell off to Ward, Lock, and Taylor.
Original copies of the magazine are valuable collector’s items, considered “”the most expensive magazine in the world” by the Antique Trader Vintage Magazines Price Guide. A copy sold at Sotheby’s in 2007 for $156,000.
Source
From the great volume A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). Additional information from Randall Stock’s “Best of Sherlock Holmes“.
Posted by Chips and Selena Buttons, co-columnists.
[After last week’s Forum topic of “Villainesses, Adventuresses, and Other Canonical Women“, Ron Lies (JHWS “Chips”) sent this paper he wrote a couple of years ago for further consideration. Please do add your thoughts in the comments! –Selena Buttons]
Morton Lowry and Wendy Barrie as the Stapletons in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
A question posted on the Welcome Holmes discussion site started it all. “Isn’t it rare in the Canon to have a male and female act jointly for a criminal purpose?”
I came up with the following list and added some of my thoughts about the pairings. What is a team? The first definition I come to is a group of people banded together to accomplish a common goal. But can a group of people with different reasons for being in that group be called a team? Can someone be forced by fear or blackmail to be in that group be a member of such a team? I say yes, how about you dear reader? Let me know what you think? I would welcome your thoughts along with any pairing I missed.
Teams Consisting of One Male and One Female
1. My first pairing is Barney and Susan Stockdale in 3GAB. From the words of their employer in this case “They are good hounds who run silent.”—- “They will take what comes to them. “That is what they are paid for.”, All 3 of the above quotes are from Isadora Klein, their current employer. I shudder to have be the target of their services or have crossed their Employer.
2. Next is Mr. Jethro Rucastle and his second wife in COPP. This odious couple is working for the same purpose and result. A father and a stepmother working against the father’s own daughter. What will their son turn to be with such parental figures to look up to?
3. Our third team is the butler Brunton and Rachel Howells in MUSG. This duo could be proof of the old adage “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned”. Or was the outcome of the case a tragic accident? I find it hard to feel sympathy for Brunton. Yet Brunton feeling his life dying with each breath he takes, so horrible!
4. Anna Sergius (wife of Sergius/Professor Corum) and the unnamed second secretary of Professor Corum, in GOLD. He was an agent of a private detective firm who provided Anna with what she needed to break into the Professor’s. Then the unnamed agent quit before he was involved any further in Anna’s plot. So she is forced to go into the Professor’s on her own. Blind so to speak.
5. There is Anna Sergius and Professor Corum, in GOLD. They acted together to hide Anna from discovery by Holmes and The authorities. They hated each other and wanted the other dead but they acted together for a common purpose, I wonder what would have happened if they would deceived Holmes and Authorities who have left Professor and Anna alone to their own devices.
Anna Sergius is one for which it can be said that she was in the wrong places at the wrong times. She strikes me as a female Joe Btfsplk: The world’s worst Jinx (Check out the Cartoon strip Li’l Abner by Al Capp for background)
6. In the HOUN, we have Beryl Garcia, aka Vandeleur, aka Stapleton. In addition, there is Jack Baskerville aka, Vandeleur aka Stapleton.
Beryl composed and sent the letter warning Sir Henry not to go to Baskerville Hall. She tries to warn who she thought was Sir Henry on the moor. Beryl seems not to be a willing participant yet she is willing to risk her life to warn a stranger?
7. Sir George Burnwell and Mary Holder are next, in the Beryl Coronet. Here are a combination of the wolf and the sheep. They are one of the best examples I know of love being blind.
8. A mean team is James Ryder and Catherine Cusack, in BLUE. To do the crime and try to pin it on an innocent party and at Christmas time! They are my candidates for The Marley Scrooge, Snidely Whiplash award for the nastiest at Christmas Time. (For background, if needed on Whiplash see the Adventures of Dudley Do Right on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.) If background needed on Marley and Scrooge, you have to be kidding!
9. Next up is Jonas Oldacre and his housekeeper Mrs. Lexington, in the Norwood Builder. Talk about there being a fine line between love and hate. His housekeeper could fill in for Mrs. Danvers at Manderley. (See the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier if background is required)
10. James Windibank aka Hosmer and Mrs. Windibank, in IDEN. What a pair! I have heard of evil stepparents but an evil stepfather and the victims own mother. That is a new one on me.
11. Then there is Mrs. Eugenia Ronder and Leonardo the strong man, in VEIL. Mrs. Ronder is one for whom I have sympathy for. Holmes was extremely kind and sympathetic to her. To me, this is an example of what Holmes had learned about people over the years and how he changed.
12. We have The Lady Trelawney Hope and Eduardo Lucas, in SECO. The expression of “being caught between a rock and a hard place” fits this Lady Hope to a T. I have my suspicions about the lady herself. She showed a clever mind later on in the story. Yet for her to believe that she was being forced to steal only minor papers at the start?
13. We have Holy Peters and Annie Frasier aka Peters, aka Schlesinger, in SOLI. They are another pair of really, really, nasty people. I wonder if there has ever been a pastiche written about these two.
14. Next come the Butler Barrymore and his wife Elisa in HOUN. I imagine Barrymore as a man in a difficult situation. On one hand, he has an obligation to turn in a viscous killer, on the other destroying his wife and possibly his marriage.
15. We have Von Bork and his wife, in LAST. His wife acted as a funnel for minor papers while protected by her diplomatic immunity. Von Bork had one very bad evening.
16. Then we have Reuben Hayes and his wife in PRIO. This unnamed wife had a reputation in the neighborhood as a good person. Yet she could not do anything and would not do anything without her husband’s permission for fear of her husband.
17 We have the unnamed Man, who acted as carriage driver and his equally unnamed wife in GREE. Surely, that must be a pastiche written involving these two characters. On the other hand, maybe posting this will give someone the idea to write one.
Teams Consisting of One Female and Two Males
18. We come to a trio who very little is known about. We have Elsie, Stark and Ferguson from ENGR. Elsie is opposed to Stark using violence again so she has been with the team at least a year. If so why does she stay? Family love, Romantic Love, Fear, or another reason? She warns our Engineer, helps him escape. So why leave our maimed and bleeding helpless Engineer laying in the garden? Short of a confession from one of the three we will never know.
19. Here are Carrie Evans and her husband, who practiced his trade as an actor, and Sir Robert Norberton from SHOS. The old saying that money is the root of all-evil applies in this case. That must have been quite a brother sister relationship in the Norberton family.
20. Next we have Ivy Douglas, her husband John Douglas aka Bertie Edwards and Cecil Barker in VALL. Mrs. Douglas was trying to protect her husband. I have wondered, based on my reading the story, were Cecil Barker’s motives really, what they seemed to be on the surface?
Teams Consisting of Two Females and One Male
21. Lady Eva Brackenstall, her personal maid Theresa Wright and Captain Jack Crocker in ABBE.A plot device that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used so well in this and the next case on this list.
22. Hatty Doran/Mouton, her personal maid Alice, and Frank Mouton in NOBL. To marry another man while seeing her first husband in attendance. Wow! What a lady who can think so fast on her feet.
Teams Consisting of a Female as Leader of a Group of Males
23. Signora Victor Durando/Miss Bernet and the society who conspired against Don Murillo in WIST: Revenge in this case is one I can sympathize with and hope she was able to find peace.
24. Isadora Klein and The Spencer John gang in 3GAB. This Villainess reminds of Cruella De Ville of The original Disney cartoon movie “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” To paraphrase the song about Ms. De Ville:
“At first you think Isadora is a devil, but after time has worn away the shock, you come to realize you’ve seen those kinds of eyes watching you from underneath a rock. A vampire bat, an inhuman beast! She ought to be locked up and never released. She’s like a spider waiting for the kill,” look out for Isadora Klein!
Finally, There is my Favorite One of All
25. A female or is it a male impersonating an old woman and Jefferson Hope in STUD? Did this person give Jefferson Hope help in other ways that Watson and Holmes were not aware? How about the ideas that the fellow actor helping Hope was John Clay or a member of the Moriarty organization helped Hope in return for a promise to help the Professor when the Professor called the favor in.
The opportunities for Sherlockian research theories will continue for as long people can read and think “what if?” May the Canon always be with us!
At the annual dinner gathering of the Baker Street Irregulars in 1941, Rex Stout delivered a paper with a shocking premise to the members of what was at that time a men-only organization.
On March 1, 1941, the paper was published for general consumption in The Saturday Review of Literature:
WATSON WAS A WOMAN
It created a huge stir amongst the members of the BSI. (Legend says the assembled membership carried Stout out of the building and dumped him in the snow!) Stout concluded both his speech and paper with a promise to produce results of future research study in a two volume study. It never materialized.
Source
Information came from the volume A Curious Collection of Dates, by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”)
Posted by The Dynamic Duo Co-columnists Ron (JHWS “Chips”) and Beth (JHWS “Selena”).
“On the quarterdeck” [from Life on a Greenland Whaler]On February 28, 1880, Arthur Conan Doyle, still a medical student, set sail from Peterhead on the Hope, a whaling ship bound for seven months in the Arctic. He was to be the ship’s surgeon taking the place of a friend who could not make at the last moment.
He published an account of his journey in The Strand magazine in January, 1897, under the title “Life on a Greenland Whaler”.
It is brutal work, though not more brutal than that which goes onto supply every dinner-table in the country. And yet those glaring crimson pools upon the dazzling white of the ice-fields, under the peaceful silence of a blue Arctic sky, did seem a horrible intrusion. But an inexorable demand creates an inexorable supply, and the seals, by their death, help to give a living to the long line of seamen, dockers, tanners, curers, triers, chandlers, leather merchants, and oil-sellers, who stand between this annual butchery on the one hand, and the exquisite, with his soft leather boots, or the savant using a delicate oil for his philosophical instruments, upon the other.
He kept a journal of his experiences. That handwritten journal, complete with illustration sketches, can be seen in Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure (2012), edited by Jon Lellenberg (JHWS “Towser”) and Daniel Stashower. It’s a fascinating glimpse into Arthur Conan Doyle’s personality as well as his adventures. In an interview for NPR, Lellenberg says:
I remember there’s one entry where he says, ‘We had nothing to do, and we did it.’ And another entry, he talks about spending the night with the crew, which is basically an evening of music, song, drinking — he says, ‘gin and tobacco in the crew’s berths.’ And the next entry starts, ‘Suffered for the gin and tobacco.’ … He’s a young man reporting what he’s seeing and hearing and experiencing in quite a remarkable way.
Two years later, on February 28, 1900, Arthur Conan Doyle boarded the troop transport Oriental for the 3 week voyage to South Africa. He had been waiting for his orders to come he asked by a friend to go to the South African town of Bloemfontein. He was to help set up a hospital. He was help pick personnel, work as a physician and be unofficial supervisor.
Source
Information for this post comes from the excellent A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”)
The actress Joanne Woodward was born Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward on February 27th, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia. This famous actress – one of Chips’ favorites – played the role of Dr Mildred Watson in the underrated Sherlockian movie “THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS“. As a Watson-like character, if not a traditional version of the good doctor, Woodward manages to capture the essential elements of Watson. Her role is neither canonical nor pastiche, but instead occupies some delightful middle-ground.
Sources
Information came from the volume A Curious Collection of Dates, by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). [Additional biographical information from IMDB –Selena Buttons]
Posted by The Dynamic Duo Co-columnists (JHWS “Chips”) aka Ron and (JHWS “Selena Buttons”) aka Beth. [You are far too kind, Chips! –Selena Buttons]
[The recent review of The Great Shelby Holmes posted by Elise Elliot (JHWS “Lucy”) piqued Chips’s interest. He read the book and shares his thoughts here. -Selena Buttons]
I love to read books that capture my attention and bring me into the book’s world. This book did that. I have friends who believe my world is the world of nine-year-old Shelby Holmes and her 11-year-old companion-to-be, John Watson. And they are right.
I was at the point of wanting a story to remember in, and this is one. My growing up years were not in New York. I come from a totally different background.
This book drew me in just like in the adult Canon. I became 11 year old John Watson and had a great time. I experienced how to accept and be a friend.
The mystery does resemble one from the Canon and is done well. I felt refreshed and ready to read the next one that I hope will follow.
So, to all 11-year-olds and 9-year-olds, you will like this story. Be prepared to explain it to all the adults who ask you to read this story to them. I hope you find the ones who are half Men and Women and still half Boys and Girls. The rest do not count.
Charles Peace, English burglar and murderer, was executed on February 25, 1879.
Why is this important to us? Because of the following quote from the Canon:
“A complex mind,” said Holmes. “All great criminals have that. My old friend Charlie Peace was a violin virtuoso.”
The case the quote is from ______________________. Please fill in the blank or ask us and we will tell you.
Charles Peace embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his home-town of Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour’s wife and shot the husband dead. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him. He was linked to the Sheffield murder and tried at Leeds Assizes. Found guilty, he was hanged at Armley Prison.
Sources
This information is from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.
The idea to use this story came from the volume A Curious Collection of Dates by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). Their story is more detailed and interesting. Look it up. You will enjoy. Leah and Jaime speculate that Holmes as a young man may have been one of the visitors that Peace entertained before Peace was hanged. Since they both had crime interests and violins in common.
Posted by The Dynamic Duo Co-columnists Ron (JHWS “Chips”) Beth (JHWS “Selena”).
The actress 
I love to read books that capture my attention and bring me into the book’s world. This book did that. I have friends who believe my world is the world of nine-year-old Shelby Holmes and her 11-year-old companion-to-be, John Watson. And they are right.